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Antoine-Jean-Francois Claudet : 1797 - 1867

Jean Francois Antoine Claudet (b. 12 August 1797; d. 27 December 1867) was one of the first commercial photographers. A French glass merchant living in High Holborn, he learned details of the daguerreotype process from its inventor, and bought from him a licence to operate in England. In 1841 he set up a studio on the roof of the Adelaide Gallery (now the Nuffield Centre), behind St. Martins in the Fields church, London, and later on in two other sites in London.

Another daguerreotype practitioner at the time was Richard Beard, and there was considerable competition between the two. Beard even took out a court injunction against Claudet in an effort to close his business, but the court found in Claudet's favour.

Exposures, at this time, were still long, and sitters were often instructed to "sit there, as still as death." One disgruntled sitter, Thomas Sutton, described his ordeal:

"I was seated... in the full blazing sunshine and after about an exposure of a minute the plate was developed..... My eyes were made to stare until the tears streamed from them and the portrait was of course a caricature.... I paid a guinea for it. It has since faded...."

In 1842 FoxTalbot sought to persuade Claudet to practise the Calotype (also known as the Talbotype) at his studio, the Adelaide Gallery. Claudet did some work with the Calotype, but as his letter to Talbot indicates, not with total success:

"Until we have a paper with a surface as uniform and perfect as a silver plate I say the Daguerreotype gives images more delicate, finer and of greater perfection than the Talbotype. Until we can operate with the Talbotype in several seconds and as rapidly as with the Daguerreotype so that one can get more pleasing poses, then I say that the advantage is on the side of the Daguerreotype. But I also say that the Talbotype has beauty which the other has not, that the impressions are more portable and circulate more easily, that it is possible so send them through the post, stick them in albums, etc. and finally that one can obtain an unlimited number of copies."

Independently, Claudet discovered an accelerating process, using chlorine instead of bromine to reduce exposures. He also invented the red dark-room light, and it was he who suggested the idea of using a series of photographs to create the illusion of movement. The idea of using painted backdrops is also attributed to him.

In 1845 Claudet bought a lens designed by Joseph Petzval. It was sixteen times faster than the ones currently in use, and enabled him not only to take pictures with shorter exposures, but also increase their size. J. Dudley Johnston, a distinguished member of the Society early this century, writes:

"He discovered a method of increasing greatly the rapidity of the Daguerreotype by means of bromide, so that he was able to obtain a portrait by the oxyhydrogen light in fifteen seconds and an image of the moon in four seconds."

In 1851 he moved his business to 107 Regent Street, where he established what he called a "Temple to Photography."

In the late eighteen fifties Claudet became fascinated by stereoscopic photography. He invented a folding stereoscope and an endless belt stereoscopic viewer which enabled one to view up to a hundred pictures in succession. He wrote:

"The stereoscope is the general panorama of the world. It brings in the cheapest and most portable form, not only the picture but the model, in a tangible shape, of all that exists in the various countries of the globe."

Claudet received many honours, among which was the appointment, in 1853, as "Photographer-in-ordinary" to Queen Victoria, and the award, ten years later, of an honour from the Emperor of France. Sadly, less than a month after his death, his "temple to photography" was burnt down, and most of his most valuable photographic treasures were lost.

Postscript: A contemporary comparison of Claudet and Beard's work

© Robert Leggat, 1997. Though permission is granted for downloading portions of this work for the purposes of individual study, copyright remains in the name of the author.

Last updated August 24, 1999

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Source: http://www.kbnet.co.uk/rleggat/photo/history/claudet.htm

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